An ability to provide viewer-selectable interactivity in conjunction with audio-video content may be a desirable capability in a broadcast-television system. A required capability in a system intended for this purpose may be an ability to control interactivity during discontinuities in program content, for example, commercial breaks, emergency broadcast interruptions, and other program-content discontinuities. Existing systems for providing viewer-selectable interactivity in conjunction with audio-video content may be problematic in many broadcast environments because of existing systems' reliance on specific signaling content in the broadcast stream. No standardized method for conveying such signals is provided across the multiple broadcast methodologies, for example, cable, terrestrial, satellite, Internet Protocol, and other broadcast methodologies, that may be used to distribute program content. Furthermore, signals that are introduced into a broadcast stream at one point in a distribution chain may be modified or removed at a later point in the processing of the broadcast stream prior to reception by the viewer. Additionally, the insertion of commercial content into program content may vary with respect to the timing, duration and identity of the commercial content during each unique broadcast of a particular piece of program content and for each method of broadcast of the program content. Due to this variability, existing systems may require control signals be inserted specifically for each presentation of the program content.
Methods and systems that control the distribution of interactive content in a broadcast-television environment by recognizing program content in the broadcast stream in the absence of specific control signals in the broadcast stream; inserting appropriate supplementary content into the broadcast stream when program content is recognized; and ceasing to insert supplementary content in the broadcast stream when program content is interrupted may be desirable.